The referee Felix Zwayer, 42, made his 30th appearance of the season on Saturday evening. He has officiated international matches, European Cup matches, cup matches as well as games in the first and second leagues, but he has not yet received such tributes as from Deniz Undav. After the 2-2 draw between Bayer Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart, the visiting striker Undav sang a speech to the referee that was like an anthem. “Thank you, referee,” he called through the hallway. “Great referee,” he continued. “Best referee,” he concluded the lecture.
Zwayer can hardly have been under the illusion that the VfB professional’s words were seriously meant as a laudatory speech. It was by no means the case that Undav and colleagues as well as coach Sebastian Hoeneß congratulated him on a job well done after the final whistle. Anger and excitement prevailed at VfB over a dramaturgy with a typical Leverkusen punchline. In the final minute, Bayer managed to score an equalizer and the team remains undefeated even after their 46th appearance of the season. Zwayer accepted Stuttgart’s complaints about the circumstances of the draw with a stoic facial expression. Instead of remaining silent himself, he could have silenced some critical footballers: Are you going to the European Championships like me?
He was unable to convincingly prove on Saturday evening why Felix Zwayer was allowed to represent the German refereeing team alongside Daniel Siebert at the European Championships. He had difficulty coping with the heated match, once showing Undav a yellow card, even though he was not the perpetrator but the victim. He also gave the two coaches warnings for trivial things, which is why Xabi Alonso is suspended for the next league matchday. “I don’t understand the yellow card very well, to be honest,” said the coach – a sharp protest by his standards.
In truth, the Stuttgart team were probably more annoyed with themselves than with the referee. Hoeneß noted that the equalizer was scored “in stoppage time of stoppage time,” but he should have turned to his own players to criticize the extra length. When Stuttgart’s Jamie Leweling received the substitution order in the third of five extra minutes, he left the field in a provocative single file. So the scene was doubly disastrous: Zwayer indicated that he would take the delay into account, and defender Pascal Stenzel also stepped onto the pitch to secure Stuttgart’s lead. The opposite happened: Stenzel committed an unnecessary foul, Florian Wirtz brought in the free kick, and at some point the ball ended up in a detour to Robert Andrich: shot, touchdown, goal, 2:2, a forest of 1000 legs couldn’t prevent it. Yes, that was incredible again. The Bayarena – a place of occult events?
The phenomenon of late goals was “not easy to explain,” said Alonso and left it at that. But apart from the players’ strong will to remain undefeated until the last breath of the season, late and very late goals have been a feature of Leverkusen’s well-planned football since last summer. These included winning goals in Augsburg and Leipzig, against Stuttgart in the DFB Cup and against Hoffenheim in the league. Last week Josip Stanisic prevented the first defeat of the season in Dortmund, now Andrich was the savior, but he was by no means by chance ready to shoot. He often takes position in this position at the penalty spot for corners and free kicks, even the touchdown was a repeat of previous attempts. And yet the constant reproduction of late and very late goals remains a mysterious art.
Given the magic of this goal, Stuttgart’s excitement over alleged irregularities seemed a bit small-minded. Especially since the third meeting between the two teams of the season was once again a football festival. If there were more games like this in this country, then not only the legendary Asian TV market would switch from the Premier League to the Bundesliga. Alexander Nübel’s spectacular performance alone would definitely be a big topic in China, Korea and Japan, as German goalkeepers are considered a synonym for German workmanship. Nübel demonstrated great reflexes and acquired a coolness in the style of the young Manuel Neuer.
VfB keeper Nübel plays a spectacularly cool game in Leverkusen
Until things got exciting, tactics and obstruction prevailed for a half, then Chris Führich and Undav gave Stuttgart a 2-0 lead, which temporarily made the new German champions seem overwhelmed. Serhou Guirassy narrowly missed making it 3-0. The audience sang in a self-hypnotic manner about the new champion’s luck and no longer cared about the result, but Alonso’s winning team fought doggedly to keep up. This time, however, without the axis, which was always present despite rotations: Jonathan Tah was substituted with an injury, Wirtz only played in the final quarter of an hour to protect himself, and Granit Xhaka served a yellow card suspension. His organizing hand was missing, as was his control of the game. This time a great collective fighting spirit had to be enough to make it 2-2.
So can Xabi Alonso’s Bayer 04 still be beaten? AS Roma will try to find out when Leverkusen visit for the Europa League semi-final on Thursday evening. Recommendation: set the alarm during stoppage time.